Kismets_Paramour
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2017
- Posts
- 138
Piratical Turn of Events
Cleodora ‘Cleo’ Shores
“Come on Cleo, lighten up!” Giggled Lady Sofia, daughter of Governor Albert Prince. She was highly intoxicated and hung wildly from the stagecoaches window, not at all how a Lady of standing should be acting.
Three years never felt like much of an age difference when it came between Sofia and myself. For the last eight years we were as thick as thieves, joined at the hip and every other such saying that explained our constant company. The kernel of our friendship started with a near death experience and a secret shared. It bound us to each other like nothing else could. In the years that followed I was accepted into the household as Lady Sofia’s handmaiden.
Pulling at the skirts of Sofia’s dress I yanked sharply a hard frown on my face. “Please Sofia, what has gotten into you?” I chided.
“Oh please.” She rolled her eyes. “My father hadn’t married you yet.”
What had been a matter of laughing jokes when it had been rumored that the Governor would ask for my hand, turned to soured jabs. “That’s not funny.”
“Am I laughing?” Sofia snapped instantly sobering up.
The mood in the carriage was tense and the next few blocks dragged on in heavy silence. “You’ve just been presented to the peerage, your father has freely offered your hand to the most acceptable,”
“Richest.” Sofia snipped under her breath.
“Most capable to give you a life similar to which you have been raised.” I corrected her. “They need to see you as the smart, kind and civil young lady I know you to be.” My face softened as I took Sofia’s hand. “I want you to find love, the kind of love that we dreamed of as children and if they think you to be some silly girl.” I patted the back of her hand a frown of worry turning my lips.
“Do you mean that?” Sofia excitedly asked sitting upright and forward in her regained seat. “Honestly?”
“With all my heart! You are my dearest friend and sister.”
“Oh Cleo!” Sofia choked up, tears coming to her eyes. “I have, really truly I have. And he loves me just as sincerely.”
The news took me by surprise. “When, how?” I sputtered unable to see the falsehood in her words.
“Last season when Father sent me to Earl Westford’s.”
I remembered, it was the only time we had ever been apart. It had been a span of six weeks but much had happened, including the Governor proposing. “Who? Do I know him?”
Sofia violently shook her head, her ebony curls springing back and forth against the motion of the carriage. “No but he’s wonderfully perfect. A complete gentleman. Handsome, compassionate and intelligent.” She listed with a love struck doe eyed look on her face.
“So why has he not made an offer for your hand?”
My question dimmed the animation on her face. “Yes, well…” She started dropping my hand and sitting back to gain distance. “He’s-“
Just then the driver hollered and the horses took a sharp turn picking up speed to a full out gallop.
“John? John!” Around us I could hear single paced horses and glanced out the window that Sofia had been swinging from just a few blocks ago. “NO!” John, our stagecoach driver, flew pass the window and I heard the dull thud of his body hitting the cobblestone road. Shouts and calls surrounded us and the stagecoach shifted and rocked, the horses continued to pick up speed and a lone rider and his horse darkened the view of the window.
“Hello pretties.” He dirty faced man sneered reaching inside to grope at us.
“Sofia!” I grabbed Sofia and pulled her towards me, my body trembling with fright. “Be gone!” I screamed clutching my friend to my body, the crinkle and hiss of our silk and damasks dress flattening against each other.
More voices called outside and one of the horses cried out, resulting in another brutal sideways pitch. A male voice bellowed and the man at the window disappeared just as the sound of something breaking filled the void.
“Cleo!”
Sofia’s panicked voice sounded far off as the carriage turned over, the world was turned over and back again as we were rattled this way and that against the confined of the coach. Pain radiated from my tailbone to the crown of my head and dotted this way and that in between before we came to a stop, the carriage on its side.
“It wasn’t planned like this.” Sofia moaned, the sound of her voice hazy in my head as large spots danced in my vision. “I’m so sorry.” She gasped in pain.
Sofia, I needed to get to her but the moment I sat up my whole world spun and the dancing spots turned to complete darkness.
Cleodora ‘Cleo’ Shores
“Come on Cleo, lighten up!” Giggled Lady Sofia, daughter of Governor Albert Prince. She was highly intoxicated and hung wildly from the stagecoaches window, not at all how a Lady of standing should be acting.
Three years never felt like much of an age difference when it came between Sofia and myself. For the last eight years we were as thick as thieves, joined at the hip and every other such saying that explained our constant company. The kernel of our friendship started with a near death experience and a secret shared. It bound us to each other like nothing else could. In the years that followed I was accepted into the household as Lady Sofia’s handmaiden.
Pulling at the skirts of Sofia’s dress I yanked sharply a hard frown on my face. “Please Sofia, what has gotten into you?” I chided.
“Oh please.” She rolled her eyes. “My father hadn’t married you yet.”
What had been a matter of laughing jokes when it had been rumored that the Governor would ask for my hand, turned to soured jabs. “That’s not funny.”
“Am I laughing?” Sofia snapped instantly sobering up.
The mood in the carriage was tense and the next few blocks dragged on in heavy silence. “You’ve just been presented to the peerage, your father has freely offered your hand to the most acceptable,”
“Richest.” Sofia snipped under her breath.
“Most capable to give you a life similar to which you have been raised.” I corrected her. “They need to see you as the smart, kind and civil young lady I know you to be.” My face softened as I took Sofia’s hand. “I want you to find love, the kind of love that we dreamed of as children and if they think you to be some silly girl.” I patted the back of her hand a frown of worry turning my lips.
“Do you mean that?” Sofia excitedly asked sitting upright and forward in her regained seat. “Honestly?”
“With all my heart! You are my dearest friend and sister.”
“Oh Cleo!” Sofia choked up, tears coming to her eyes. “I have, really truly I have. And he loves me just as sincerely.”
The news took me by surprise. “When, how?” I sputtered unable to see the falsehood in her words.
“Last season when Father sent me to Earl Westford’s.”
I remembered, it was the only time we had ever been apart. It had been a span of six weeks but much had happened, including the Governor proposing. “Who? Do I know him?”
Sofia violently shook her head, her ebony curls springing back and forth against the motion of the carriage. “No but he’s wonderfully perfect. A complete gentleman. Handsome, compassionate and intelligent.” She listed with a love struck doe eyed look on her face.
“So why has he not made an offer for your hand?”
My question dimmed the animation on her face. “Yes, well…” She started dropping my hand and sitting back to gain distance. “He’s-“
Just then the driver hollered and the horses took a sharp turn picking up speed to a full out gallop.
“John? John!” Around us I could hear single paced horses and glanced out the window that Sofia had been swinging from just a few blocks ago. “NO!” John, our stagecoach driver, flew pass the window and I heard the dull thud of his body hitting the cobblestone road. Shouts and calls surrounded us and the stagecoach shifted and rocked, the horses continued to pick up speed and a lone rider and his horse darkened the view of the window.
“Hello pretties.” He dirty faced man sneered reaching inside to grope at us.
“Sofia!” I grabbed Sofia and pulled her towards me, my body trembling with fright. “Be gone!” I screamed clutching my friend to my body, the crinkle and hiss of our silk and damasks dress flattening against each other.
More voices called outside and one of the horses cried out, resulting in another brutal sideways pitch. A male voice bellowed and the man at the window disappeared just as the sound of something breaking filled the void.
“Cleo!”
Sofia’s panicked voice sounded far off as the carriage turned over, the world was turned over and back again as we were rattled this way and that against the confined of the coach. Pain radiated from my tailbone to the crown of my head and dotted this way and that in between before we came to a stop, the carriage on its side.
“It wasn’t planned like this.” Sofia moaned, the sound of her voice hazy in my head as large spots danced in my vision. “I’m so sorry.” She gasped in pain.
Sofia, I needed to get to her but the moment I sat up my whole world spun and the dancing spots turned to complete darkness.
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